Somehow in the process I goofed and ordered batteries with the wrong connector (xt60 v xt30). I spent this morning trying to find other batteries or an adapter in the local metro area.
- There are ~8 hobby stores within 50 miles
- None of them have any stock info online
- I called every one of them and nobody stocked the battery I need, nor an adapter.
- I can go on Amazon, GetFPV, HobbyKing, ReadyMadeRC, etc and find the exact parts I need.
In the same vein I've noticed is that many of the traditional sporting goods stores have basically become clothing stores with an online store for everything else.
Too bad I haven't figured out how to trust random extensions or I would consider using something like this.
All of this said I used to work at a local computer store back in the 90's and can imagine just how difficult it is to run a local store that competes with Internet-based stores.
As someone with direct experience in this whole class of hardware (hobbyist grade UAS stuff), you're going to want to have a soldering setup and low cost consumables (heat shrink tubing, etc, extra connectors that cost a few dollars each) to have your own capability to do things like change out DC power connectors. It's totally normal to get a battery with a connector that you might not want.
If you stay in the hobby for the long run it will cost you a lot less money to have the capability to buy discrete parts and repair things yourself (example: buying a new $40 4-in-1 ESC) than buying bind and fly stuff.
https://www.amazon.com/YIHUA-Soldering-Conversion-Temperatur...
Do they probably work most of the time? Sure. But I want the temperature display to mean 500C when it reads 500C and not 450C, and for my iron to be up to temperature just as quick as my FX-888D does without being a fire hazard or potentially let out the magic smoke because some cheap component died.
That said, if anybody is looking for a hot air station don’t buy from Hakko - they’re current models are overpriced and take forever to heat up. Atten (a Chinese brand) sells fantastic stations in the $250 price point that heat faster and have a saner interfaces. Point I’m trying to make here is don’t spend money for a well known brand if you don’t have to, but make sure whatever you buy is equipment you can trust instead and that means having reviews from trusted sources outside of Amazon customers.
This is a problem that should have been solved years ago. You should be able to measure yourself very accurately and thoroughly, keep it on some sort of file that you can share what you need, and then use tools on the online sites to learn exactly how their products will fit.
True Fit partners with several stores. You go on a store's web site (for example, macys.com), and you tell True Fit about some clothing you already have that fits well (brand, size, style). Based on that, it refers to its database to recommend the best size of the product you're considering now, and it tells you whether it thinks it will be "snug", "true to you", or "loose".
Basically it just formalizes the kind of knowledge that shoppers use about how brand A tends to run small, brand B runs large, brand C is aimed at young people so its shirts are more tailored, brand D is aimed at older people and their shirts are more "generous" in the waist, etc.
Their web site calls it the "Fashion Genome™", which is a "comprehensive, normalized fashion graph".
I worked at Levi’s Corp for 3 years and was surprised to learn that clothes have large tolerances in sizes to keep costs down.
True fit says you should select a size based on the size you wear in another brand. That won’t work because no brands have consistent sizing. Even if a brand used extremely tight size tolerances, brands actively size up and down their clothes based on the whims of merchants.
The solution is to just buy 3 sizes of each item you want and select the best fit and return the rest.
Yeah, that's the main problem with this. If you're buying higher-end stuff with tighter tolerances, just providing a set of measurements can work. There's a whole industry of tailors in India and Hong Kong who sell made-to-measure dress shirts to Westerners over the internet.
There's not a directory or anything it seems like.
I tried visiting several sites and got these results:
Works for me: Macy's, J.Crew, JCPenney
Doesn't work: Kohl's, Dockers, Lands' End, Ralph Lauren
In all cases, I picked a random (except for avoiding store brands) men's casual shirt and looked on the details page near where you select a size.
The worst offender is "Old Navy" where a 36" is actually a whopping 41 inches. It seems like men won't buy pants that are labeled over 39 inches, so as sizes go up from 30 inches, the "vanity" excess goes up exponentially.
See: https://www.esquire.com/style/mens-fashion/a8386/pants-size-...
they used to be, but these days a "size 38" designation doesn't carry any more actual meaning than women's clothing sizes like "size 0"
i noticed that a certain jean i buy fit consistently only within a given dye and wash. darker pair or different wash fit differently.
I'm talking about the exact same dye btw. Like the same color, number, everything. Only difference is sizes. I've gotten smaller sizes an inch larger than the "larger" sizes for the exact same jeans. It's ridiculous.
of course they can! those jeans cost double.
it’s not a matter of incompetence or don’t care. it’s a matter of production efficiency.
as for otherwise identical jeans being different sizes, that’s also a matter of consistency of the raw material. if you want high consistency it costs more. consumers aren’t willing to bear that cost.
With shoes there is at least consistency because it seems like it became a penis enlargement thing there. On some brands my size grew from 43 to 47 in the recent years.
There was a 5 cm (2 inch) difference.
Pair that with covid not letting you try things on and it just plain sucks. Sometimes I have to try shotgunning it so I'm not making 3 trips to the store just to try a new number.
Stuff like electronics is different. Then I don't care about seeing and feeling the product beforehand. Instead I value that stuff is easy to findz search, price and availability. Though I still but stuff locally because I don't want to wait for shipping
With a free UPS pickup because it was included with the purchase? Me.
i order 2-3 sizes and send back the ones that don’t fit.
convenience of online with just the added small bump of a trip to the post office or UPS.
Won't happen until enough brick and mortar stores close that the remaining ones can get away with it, though.
My understanding is that this is because the denim is stacked and then die cut in the factory. Since denim is highly deformable, the cut outs from the top of the stack are not the same size as the cut out from the bottom of the stack. And this can lead to considerable size variance within the "same" pairs of pants.
That's why it's a good idea to try on two pairs of the exact "same" pants if the fit is close, but not quite right. YMMV.
If I buy two of the same pair, the match each other throughout their lifespan.
Unfortunately that was a while ago and I don’t have the apps installed to know which it was.
“Going shopping” is an asinine use of my time.
It sucks, because I want to support businesses other than Amazon and the like, ones that pay corporation tax and don't abuse their market position, but the other stores really have to raise their game. For better or worse, Amazon has definitely been a game-changer in retail and it's not enough to trade like it's the year 2000 any more. You have to be innovative and see software as a way to improve your offering.
This needs two efforts - people have to be Ok with an inferior shopping experience to a certain extent. Can’t have cake and eat it.
Second, Software powered world needs a different kind of monopoly control - we shouldn’t talking about “breaking up Amazon” - that just creates busy work from yet another set of programmers to work on duplicating everything Amazon has. That is a waste of resources.
Instead regulation should force Amazon to share its “retail infra” and may be allow local business to relicense/partner with some of it.
I'm not sure that's a true statement. I've completely ceased buying computing equipment from Amazon because their search is so goddamned useless. Newegg's power search actually works and lets me find what I'm looking for.
Yes, I know that those will definitely be referral links, but I'm fine with that.
I think it's a unique combination of logistics and tech which few companies manage to successfully pursue. Things like hooking up the cash register system to the website so the website doesn't say "in stock" when someone has bought the last one. It's pretty easy for someone techy to do that, but there is rarely a sufficiently techy person on staff in a typical small business.
Amazon uses that money it saves from not paying tax to improve its website and service. That's why others aren't able to compete.
I've always tried to support local, but lately I've given up on local bike stores near me house. Went in looking for simple things, spokes, tube patches, quick links for chains. Only to be stared at blankly with confusion or told they don't have said items in stock. I went home an ordered off Amazon in 2 minutes, arrived next day.
Similar experiences with all types of things.
One thing I'm not sure about is if small businesses really care about surviving or competing with "the internet" I've not really seen much evidence to support this idea.
I make an effort to route everything through my local bike shop; as the two who operate it are both skilled mechanics and actually ride, so are a body of knowledge. I dont find that with other chain based stores, who keep sales and mechanics separate. Its at the latter I get blank looks, usually from sales people, and I dislike it intensely
A small business isn't going to hold something in inventory that only one person every 5 years wants
Do you... try that regularly?
Stores are so understaffed, you're lucky to get them to pick up the phone at all, and if they do you often won't get accurate information. They'll never walk to an aisle to see if something is physically there, they'll tell you if it's "in the system", but frequently "the system" will show 3 in stock while the reality is zero on the shelf. Or 48 in stock but they're all on a pallet in the back they can't get to.
And good luck finding a sales associate in the store itself. Quite frequently there simply aren't any -- only cashiers, a security guard, and people restocking who don't have the knowledge to help you at all.
So I guess my anecdote cancels yours out?
Even when you do go to a shop you are often redirected online. That item isn't in stock on the computer. No attempt to upsell you or suggest an alternative which they might have in stock. It's no wonder high street stores are dying out.
To be fair, small specialist stores are usually much better. I even got a call back from a company the last time I was trying to buy a specific BBQ. Sadly they didn't have it in stock and a day or two later I found it online.
It may even be influenced by who is working that week or that month or who runs the place this year.
Ecommerce is imperfect in many ways, but it is far more consistent in its imperfection than local retail.
W.C. Winks Hardware Inc. in Portland, Oregon has been around since 1909 and is amazing.
You can go in there with some odd piece of hardware and someone will personally wait on you, assess your request and find the exact item or closest likeness.
The staff is patient and friendly, in my experience it is ideal local retail. But Winks doesn’t do ecommerce at all, so I often must relegate it to unusual hard to figure HW needs, because not every project needs this level of service.
I’m in agreement that retail has some pretty serious work to do to stay in the running. It might not be fair or “right” but it has to happen nonetheless.
There are no good options. I went through this recently where I had to call different stores on 3 separate days, waiting till 10am, 11am, or 12pm. And you still don't know the product you are asking about is really the one you are after. There are so many versions of products and specific use cases nowadays.
Show me where Amazon or whatever online shop can emulate that.
The best help is when someone asks you what you are trying to accomplish instead of what isle something is in. It's why you go back to that store and learn when certain employees are working. To the young workers, i totally get that your underpaid and not your career path or one at all. Perhaps for some of the older/retired gen is it more supplimental income and they enjoy being a knowledge base for people like me who sometimes know enough to be dangerous..
If I call, it’s often 5 to 10 minutes for the call to determine stock availability (often the clerk needs to go wander around to find it, or go to the far back of their lot to see how much they have). That’s assuming anyone knows what I’m talking about/I can adequately describe what I’m looking for without them getting confused, which isn’t always the case.
This adds up. For some things it’s worth it, or even essential. For other things, it is not. I’ve given up on in-person for computer/networking/IT equipment for instance. Too difficult to get a clear answer, local markups and stocking are too unpredictable, it’s so much faster doing a search and purchasing online.
This is still worse than going to amazon and doing a quick search, seeing a ton of different products that satisfy your needs, and reading reviews from people that bought them. Then when you purchase it arrives in a day. Fake reviews aside, this is vastly superior.
I'd even argue that brick-and-mortar is more prone to counterfeits because control buying by the original producers is far harder.
You're not wrong that those are options, but those options are the exact reason brick and mortar stores are struggling to stay afloat. They offer an inferior service.
Ended up buying some cheap shit off ebay that got the job done.
Other then niche products like brewers items, furniture and other home goods it’s difficult to find things I need.
It’s not like I live in the woods either.
I've tried to approach some local businesses to create an online catalog and they claim their competition would use it against them...
I think bookstores are one of the best examples. Amazon has literally everything, but if you're not exactly sure what to read next, if you walk through the highly curated aisles of a local used bookstore, or talk to the (highly knowledgeable) person behind the front desk, you'll probably walk out of the door with something awesome.
“On Nearby, they shop across multiple local stores, in one basket, with one checkout, and no fuss. After a customer checks out, we place orders with you and the other stores, and do the work of putting the order together.”
Bigger chains usually has a website you can browse instead.
The value-add is that I can see the washing line before I buy it. Pictures just doesn't make it - they lie. And then I would have to live with a crappy washing line because what are the chances I would bother replacing it with another cheap random internet washing line.
Of course there will be, because demand will still exist.
There will just be less shops, with higher prices, and focused only on the types of things people tend to need immediately.
But that's exactly what people would want -- buy most of your stuff cheaply online with a delay, but have shops specializing in need-it-now categories of things for a premium price.
It's an entirely viable model.
Shops seem reluctant to do this, possibly because they don't like being price matched or view their inventory as a trade secret.
The point is to sacrifice convenience to support local stores.
You want to do the right thing AND you want it to be more convenient? Sounds like you're just looking for convenience.
Hunting for a specific product (for example a washing line) might involve walking into 3 different shops and guessing which shop might sell what you need. When you arrive in the shop, they always arrange aisles differently so unless you have 20 minutes to hunt you might not find it either.
Whereas online it's a simple search and click "buy now". It's probably cheaper too.
Bricks and mortar shops need to do a lot of work on the shopping experience before they're competitive. The only time bricks and mortar shops win are when I need something right now or groceries.